Tag "Plant"

Luckily, your landscaping can work as a natural pest repellent, if only you know what to plant.
To get you started, here are nine plants and herbs that can help keep bugs away.
Lavender works to deter common pests like moths, fleas, flies, and mosquitoes.
As with most plants on this list, lavender will work best if planted by your high-traffic areas: entrances and outdoor living spaces.
Not only does it chase off a number of biting, flying pests like mosquitoes, it is also used as for migraine prevention.
Feverfew does well enough on its own, but works even better if planted together with lavender and lemongrass.
Quick tip: Crush a bit of the leaves and apply to skin for an even more effective repellent.
Basil is a great first choice.
Rosemary works against mosquitoes.
If none of these options fit your fancy, there are many other edible and decorative plants that can do the trick.

Trump is losing his rallying cry to save coal.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) voted on Thursday to retire two coal-fired power plants in the next few years despite a plea from the president to keep one of the plants open.
But the TVA board of directors voted 5-2 in favor of closing that plant as well as the Bull Run plant in Tennessee.
Coal is an important part of our electricity generation mix and @TVAnews should give serious consideration to all f… https://t.co/yljvUmkAE5 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 1549922605.0 After the vote, the agency tweeted that the decision to close the plants “will ensure continued reliable power at the lowest cost feasible.”
So the board’s decision to close the plants wasn’t even based on coal being the most polluting energy source.
But coal plants are closing at a rapid pace because of economics and competing power sources.
One of the “no” votes came from Trump-appointee Kenny Allen, a retired coal exec from Kentucky. “I’m just not completely comfortable with the recommendation because the impact and ripple effect on community cannot be fully quantified,” he said, as quoted by the AP.
But Johnson, TVA’s CEO, said 40 percent of the plant employees whose jobs will be displaced are eligible for retirement, and added that those who want to stay could be offered jobs elsewhere in the utility, the Chattanooga Times Free Press wrote.
TVA said on Twitter, “We will work with impacted employees and communities.”

For the first time, carbon dioxide is being captured at a biomass power plant in the UK.
Britain’s Drax announced that its pilot bioenergy carbon capture and storage project is expected to capture a ton of CO2 a day from its North Yorkshire-based wood-burning plant.
The company is also finding ways to store and use the captured carbon. “This innovative technology has the potential to make huge strides in our efforts to tackle climate change while kick-starting an entirely new cutting-edge industry in the UK,” Britain’s energy and clean growth minister Claire Perry said in a press release.
The BBC explained how such plants can go negative: When a forest grows, the trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to make their wood.
It’s called carbon neutral.
Proponents of carbon capture and storage or CCS, tout it as a way to help stop global temperature rise.
However, critics say the nascent technology is too expensive to implement on a large scale for it to be commercially viable. “One way to reduce coal’s impact is to capture, compress and bury its emissions—but it’s much simpler, cheaper and safer to simply leave the coal in the ground,” Simon Holmes à Court, a senior adviser to the Energy Transition Hub at Melbourne University, wrote in the Guardian.
Every year, Drax’s biomass plant burns about 7 million metric tons of wood chips—mostly from trees grown in the U.S.—to generate 6 percent of the UK’s electricity, according to the BBC.

Read along as you listen to the Feb. 4, 2019 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below.
planting for pollinators, with brian campbell Audio Player Q. I’ve missed talking to you guys, and I still remember how you taught me to grow better beets, for instance, one of the lessons I’ve gotten from you over the years.
I don’t know what happened, but must have been that either a seed sowed the next year or the thing sprouted.
So, when I talk to botanists and entomologists about what are good “pollinator plants,” one family of herbaceous plants that’s always tops on everyone’s list for pollinator interest is the daisy or sunflower relatives, the composites.
I always think of those as like those markings and, like you say, the things we can’t see on the flowers as those things.
What are some of your really early things that are in bloom on the farm?
We always grow quite a bit of brassica seed at our place, that cabbage/kale family, and that’s a biennial.
And that’s another family that a lot of entomologists always mention to me as having great insect appeal.
So what would be a few things that we’re probably all growing that you would say to us, “Don’t behead it so early, gardeners.
I think things like we’ve already discussed—parsley.

Sydney’s desalination plant has officially been switched on, returning it to operation for the first time in seven years.
But the plant’s finished product will not be flowing out of the city’s taps until at least April.
Sydney’s dam storage dropped below 60% on Sunday, triggering the long-awaited restart procedures and putting the plant back in operation for the first time since 2012.
Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Sydney Desalination Plant’s chief executive, Keith Davies, said drinkable water will be delivered to Sydney’s drinking water supply “within the next three to four months”.
“In line with our operating licence, we expect it will take up to eight months from restart for the plant to reach its maximum capacity of producing 250 million litres per day of water – or about 15% of Sydney’s drinking water requirements,” he said in a statement.
Tasmanian bushfires: 500 firefighters battle scores of blazes as temperature set to soar Read more “The plant plays an important part in assisting the New South Wales government in implementing its wider measures aimed at alleviating the metropolitan impacts of the current drought.” The NSW water minister, Don Harwin, said there was no reason to be alarmed about Sydney’s water because the dams still had more than two years’ worth of water supply.
The plant has been in an extended testing phase for months after being in a deep state of preservation.
It has only previously operated once between 2010 and 2012.
Under its contract, the desalination plant must operate for a minimum of 14 months under the metropolitan water plan and potentially until dam levels return to 70%.
Sydneysiders can expect their annual water bills to increase by about $30 as a result.

There are a number of plants that mosquitoes and other biting insects dislike, mainly strong-smelling herbs and flowering plants.
The plants will grow big and wild in the container, they will flower at different times, and have many different textures of foliage to keep it interesting.
Lavender is a gorgeous ornamental with a dazzling fragrance, it has a wonderful delicate flavor that adds depth to many different types of recipes, and it is one of the most popular ingredients in natural beauty recipes … Continue reading C. Pineapple Mint – Mentha suaveolens ‘Variegata’ is a decorative mint with white-edged leaves and a wooly texture.
It has a pleasantly sweet mint aroma on highly decorative leaves, making it an attractive addition to a container.
Like mint, it is basil in general that mosquitoes dislike.
I chose Thai basil in particular for its appearance and flavor, but any basil will deter pesky mosquitoes.
Related: H. Lemon Thyme – Thymus citriodorus is a pretty yellow and green variegated evergreen thyme that smells and tastes like lemon.
The “Mosquito Plant,” is a type of geranium that is scented like citronella and in my experience is not a good deterrent for mosquitoes.
It is very pretty to have in the garden, with a delightful citrusy aroma, but there is very little evidence that it actually repels mosquitoes despite how it is marketed.
The best way to use a mosquito-repelling container garden is to place it near the gathering area at entry to the garden or lawn.

From late winter to fall, there are plenty of edible flower seeds to start, so add a few to your summer sowing roster.
The following seeds take well to July sowing and can all be found in the Garden Therapy Edible Flower Garden Kit.
Try growing squash in hills, sowing 5 – 6 seeds per hill, and thinning to 3 strong plants later.
Sow directly outdoors in full sun and in warm soil, avoiding areas planted with beans last year to reduce disease pressure.
Sow these seeds now for an attractive and edible garden in the late summer.
Harvest and eat it in just 48 days!
Dark leafy greens grow off brightly colored stems in reds, pinks, and yellows.
Harvest in just 30 days for tender baby leaves, or 60 days for mature kale.
Eat both the stems and the leaves as they are both packed with nutritional value.
Of course, there are many more plants that you can start in the summer for a fall harvest.

(The blisters contain only water.)
How you get the rash without touching the plant is only one misconception about this toxic plant.
There are more: Myth #1: Poison ivy and its cousins, poison oak and poison sumac, are the only poison plants in the United States that cause an itchy rash.
Other plants in this family, such as cashews, also produce a rash-inducing oil.
Unfortunately, the urushiol oil in poison ivy is resistant to heat.
While the mantra, “leaves of three, let it be”, helps identify poison ivy, which has three toothed, heart- or almond-shaped leaves growing from one point on a stalk, every part of the plant can cause a reaction, including the stems, berries and roots as I inadvertently discovered.
If you don’t get it the first time you touch it, you will probably get it the second time.
If you know you’ve touched poison ivy and you immediately wash the exposed area with soap and water, your odds of getting the rash greatly decrease.
If you think a large area of your body may have touched it, take a shower, not a bath.
Urushiol oil is durable stuff.

Right at the height of summer, the single most time-consuming job in the garden has to be watering.
But even for those who don’t mind battling with a kinked hose every evening after work, eventually hosepipe bans, holiday breaks or, frankly, worrying about the water bill, will probably get the best of you.
However, simply swapping some of the more water-hungry species for drought-resistant choices will give you a garden that looks its very best with far less time, cost and effort, not to mention being kinder on the planet, too.
Here’s a rundown of my favourite herbaceous perennials that will sail through a summer drought, but also handle some of the wettest, chilliest British winters.
One of the most reliable species in my books is ‘Arctic Star’, bred in the UK, which gets to almost 1m tall with its ice-white flowers on plants that are super hardy.
Fast on their heels is another Southern African genus, kniphofia, whose whorls of architectural, aloe-like foliage are punctuated with slender spikes of flowers which give it the old-school name, red hot pokers.
If you want something quirkier, check out ‘Green Jade’, whose mint green blooms age to creamy-white.
Sticking with the flowery theme, gaura will handle pretty much any degree of drought and heat that we could ever experience in the UK, even on the thinnest of soils.
If you are looking for something more understated, the towering plumes of the elegant grass calamagrostis, will provide wonderful height and structure to a border.
Likewise iberis creates just as effective drought-resistant ground cover, but will handle far more winter wet, offering up much more traditional drifts of delicate white flowers.

“It’s where the roots live.
A soil test offers specific information and eliminates the guesswork.
Before using compost, Grubinger recommends referring to your soil test.
“If soil is very high in phosphorus, then compost should be added sparingly or not at all.” Information on compost for home gardens is offered by university extension services, such as the University of Florida IFAS.
For other earth-friendly watering ideas, read Gardening Greatness: 12 Water Saving Tips.
Maximizing Mulch Mulch offers varied benefits for your garden.
Mulch also provides a potential source of nutrients.
Consider Cover Crops In between vegetable season or flower season, plant something temporarily that’s beneficial to the soil, suggests Grubinger.
Cover crops are valuable for enriching the soil, enhancing biodiversity, and preventing erosion.
Extra Tips Don’t over-till the soil.

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